Maintaining the accuracy of address data is a significant problem for postal authorities, since every mailer who prints an undeliverable as addressed address on a mail piece, costs the postal authority significant expense in order to process that item. Several delivery attempts may be made and address correction techniques may be employed once the delivery fails and efforts are made by the postal authority to facilitate the correction of the address. A significant majority of the undeliverable mail comes from moves made by one or more members of a household. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has implemented an Address Correction Service (ACS) for many years. For a fee, the USPS will inform the mailer of all bad addresses that it encounters and then supply the correct address to the mailer so that the mailer's address list can be updated. The process of providing the ACS service has been both labor intensive and expensive. In addition, the alpha codes on the mail piece that authorize the service are difficult to read with optical character reader (OCR) technology. No-reads or read errors can occur during the OCR process, both of which render the ACS ineffective for that mail piece.
The USPS has implemented a new Intelligent Mailpiece Barcode (IMB), which also is referred to as the 4-State Customer Barcode (4CB), which contains significantly more data about the mail piece, the mailer, services selected (such as ACS), and delivery point address code than the current POSTNET barcode in common use today. USPS has introduced a method of providing electronic Address Change Service (ACS), referred to as OneCode ACS™ to mailers who adopt the Intelligent Mailpiece Barcode (IMB) on their mail pieces. ACS is an approved method for mailers to comply with the move update requirement of the USPS. Given the efficiencies gained by USPS with mailer adoption of IMB they are offering extremely attractive pricing on OneCode ACS notices versus traditional ACS notices. First Class OneCode ACS—for each Change of Address (COA) the first two notices are free with subsequent notices 0.05 cents each; Standard Mail—the first two notices are 0.02 cents each with subsequent notices 0.15 cents each. Traditional ACS pricing in comparison—First Class will be 0.06 cents each and Standard mail will be 0.25 cents each. Given this pricing, it can be expected that OneCode ACS will become the method of choice for those utilizing the ACS service in the future.
The conventional way to apply the IMB is through a data center processor and supporting software such as Bowe Bell+Howell's Mail Manger 2010™. This technology adds the IMB to the address block of the documents to be printed. Since the address block will be visible through the window in the envelope after the document is inserted into the envelope, the IMB will be visible to the imaging system on USPS mail processing automation equipment. The data contained in the IMB will be used by USPS to provide the OneCode ACS service. The mailer will receive an electronic file to use to correct their address list for all defective addresses identified and updated by USPS.
However, for various reasons, it is not always desirable to use the data center processor to apply the IMB. The reasons for not utilizing this approach may include the cost to modify data center processor software to apply the IMB with the correct data encoded in the IMB into the print file, the cost of Mail Manager 2010 service, and the desire to print addresses on the envelope versus using windowed envelopes.